Director General Nam Young-woo in charge of spatial information policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT). (Photo: MOLIT)

In accordance with the 3rd Master Plan to Promote the Spatial Information Industry, the government aims to rise sales in the industry to 13 trillion won and rank 7th in the world in national competitiveness related to spatial information by 2025, said Director General Nam Young-woo, in charge of spatial information policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT).

Dir.-Gen. Nam said, “The Korean New Deal projects are expected to serve as good opportunities in the spatial information sector based on data by expediting digital transformation of all industries and convergence uses of data.”

In this context, he said the spatial information industry is predicted to maintain remarkable growth by producing, processing and distributing high quality data in new industries using spatial information, such as smart city, self-driving and drones as well as creating diverse convergence products and services.

The following are excerpts of an interview with NewsWorld in which Dir.-Gen. Nam spoke of national spatial information policies.

Question: Would you introduce to our readers to the 3rd Master Plan to Promote the Spatial Information Industry, announced recently?

Answer: With the recent launch of the Korean New Deal projects, digital transformation of all industries, like the advancement of the data-network-AI (DNA) ecosystem is progressing fast.

In particular, in the spatial information field, the Digital Twin Project is one of the 10 representative projects under the Korean New Deal initiative.

Building vast amounts of data and digitalization of industries, coupled with multi-disciplinary convergence, are expected to serve as great opportunities in the spatial information sector.

Given recent industry condition changes and outlooks, the government established the 3rd Master Plan to Promote the Spatial Information Industry to nurture the spatial information industry so it becomes part of the key infrastructure for the digital economy.

In particular, the master plan was established by reflecting not only views of experts from industry and academic circles, but also opinions proposed in public policy idea contests.

Q: Would you elaborate on goals of the spatial information industry, action strategies and major tasks?

A: The 3rd Master Plan to Promote the Spatial Information Industry enumerates three action strategies and 12 major tasks, with the goal of raising sales in the spatial information industry to 13 trillion won and ranking 7th in the world in national competitiveness related to spatial information by 2025.

A first strategy involves ramping up industry competitiveness by offering support tailored to corporate needs.

The government plans to explore promising spatial information startups and provide support such as office space, investment and consulting corresponding to growth stages.

We plan to build an ecosystem to promote shared growth among large- and medium-sized companies and institutional reform to reflect proper values of spatial information projects.

A second strategy calls for advancing regimes of distributing and utilizing spatial information.

The government plans to divulge multi-satellite images such as satellite, aerospace and drones to the private sector by working out a data utilization regime and leading the development of standards related to new technologies such as digital twin.

Security steps such as encryption will be taken to help the industry utilize high-precision 3D data whose public disclosure has been restricted for security reasons.

A third strategy is related to the development of core future technologies and development of convergence manpower.

Q: Would you specify policies to advance the spatial information digital twin eco-system as part of the Korean New Deal initiative?

A: Our ministry is working on the operation infrastructure in core sectors of the 4th Industrial Revolution, such as self-driving and drones as part of the Korean New Deal policies, and implementing a digital twin territory project to ensure the safe and efficient territory and facility management.

The nation is building fast core infrastructure of 3D maps, precision roads maps and underground space integrated maps to digitalize the territory.

Starting the second half of this year, 12cm-precision satellite map data will be supplied on a gradual basis.

The government also implements a national R&D project related to the development of standards to secure interoperability of digital twin territory data. Initially, standards on structures will be develop this year and they will be employed to utilizes diverse digital twin uses.

Standards on major facilities such roads will be also materialized step by step.

Core technologies such as indoor and outdoor continuous positioning technology and 3D changed information autonomous renewal will be developed for five years between 2022 and 2026 to meet demand on a variety of spatial information in the 4th Industrial Revolution era.

We plan to expedite the use of digital territory and build joint digital twin utilization infrastructure of each field.

Publicly contested pilot projects designed to solve local governments’ pending issues based on digital twin territory will be implemented this year.

Convergence projects for connectivity and joint utilization of digital twin and for building integrated platforms will be pushed ahead to prepare for a full-fledged utilization of digital twin.

Q: Would you talk about the current stats and outlooks of the Korean spatial information industry?

A: Outcomes of the 2020 statistical survey of the Korean spatial information industry showed that the industry posted 9.339 trillion won in sales and the number of employees with the industry and companies was tallied at 65,356 and 5,589, respectively.

The Korean New Deal projects are expected to serve as good opportunities in the spatial information sector based on data by expediting digital transformation of all industries and convergence uses of data.

In this context, the spatial information industry is predicted to maintain remarkable growth by producing, processing and distributing high quality data in new industries using spatial information such as smart city, self-driving and drones as well as creating diverse convergence products and services.

Q: Would you introduce the significance of your ministry’s recent MOU with four organizations?

A: Policies of jointly utilizing national spatial information are designed to share and actively utilize spatial information, so government agencies have struck MOUs since 2015 so that spatial information can be used as resources in the data industry and job creation in accordance with the Basic Act on National Spatial Information, stipulating the sharing and jointly utilizing of spatial information regimes.

In accordance with an MOU signed among four government agencies, including the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Cultural Heritage Administration on June 7, they are allowed to jointly use additional spatial information such as farm maps, information on bridges and tunnels and cultural property information and 3D city models.

They are expected to provide support to new businesses such as future farm consulting, 3D analysis in flooded areas and bridge safety management as well as utilize them for efficient urban safety management.

Our ministry plans to continuously expand the gathering of spatial information and its connectivity in cooperation with central government agencies and public entities so that spatial information can be jointly used, and help participants develop and supply new services through uses of diverse spatial information.

Q: Would you speak about your ministry’s plan to host the Smart GEO Expo 2021?

A: Our ministry has been hosting Smart GEO Expo every year since 2008 for the purpose of promoting exchanges and communications among a variety of companies, institutions and organizations with the spatial information industry, providing business opportunities and raising public awareness toward the industry.

Smart GEO Expo 2021 will be held at COEX in Seoul from July 21 to July 23. An opening ceremony, an exhibition, conferences and other major events of the expo will take place on-line and off-line in compliance with social distancing guidelines.

Global speaker’s key-note lectures, an opening ceremony and a special session on a film related to digital twin will be held under the theme “New Future that Will be Created by Spatial Information and Digital Convergence Technologies” on Day 1 on July 21.

On-line and off-line exhibitions on new technologies and new industries related to the spatial information sector, conferences on industry trends and new technology policies will be held on top of business programs such as one-on-one meetings between companies and buyers and Korean and foreign companies’ demonstrating technologies and businesses during the three-day expo period.